Today’s Food and Ag Links

Via LRC, Jim Rogers and Marc Faber are bullish on commodities and agribusiness. “Rogers says that it will be farmers not bankers driving Ferraris in the coming decades. Faber likens investing in agriculture to investing in oil in 2001 or 2002.” Rogers is good on macro, BTW.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture — bless its heart! — has swooped in to protect high-end Chicago restaurant diners from the evils of unregulated designer sausages. Notes Thom Lambert: “The charcuteries’ sophisticated patrons realize they’re dealing with unlicensed meat-preparing facilities, but they know the sausage makers, are aware of the high-quality products they use and the care they take in making their products, and are willing to purchase the products despite the absence of a commercial license.” No, no, reputation effects cannot, I repeat, cannot, substitute for one-size-fits-all, top-down, government regulation! People might start thinking for themselves, you know.

Christine Harbin writes on libertarian food paternalism. “If America were serious about reducing the caloric intake of its citizens, then officials would eliminate the subsidies that it pays to corn producers rather than instituting sin taxes.”

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Anyone that thinks farmers will be driving Ferraris won’t see a dime of my money. As you know, Peter, any short-term profits in farming are immediately bid into land prices…or exchanged for new combines, which cost as much as a Ferrari.

And since ag commodity prices have no meaning due to invasive government policy, I don’t know what it means to be bullish in these markets.